Hopper discharge outlet closure assembly



J. T. SMITH 3,130,687

' HOPPER DISCHARGE OUTLET CLOSUREASSEMBLY Filed Feb. 2, 1956 5Sheets-Sheet 1 April 28, 1964 v ji'ZZ/7l for: Javzes 7. 5772:1122

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HOPPER DISCHARGE OUTLET CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Filed Feb. 2, 1956 5Sheets-Sheet 5 [72 dIZ for fazvzes .7" 5772!??? April 28, 1964 J. T.SMITH 3,130,687

HOPPER DISCHARGE OUTLET CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Filed Feb. 2, 1956 5Sheets-Sheet 4 Z5 f4) m I,r: -E-LlJ J H l- H 1 W1 I l 1 1 J01 -'{'j0IAIIII IIIIIIIIIII II ||l J. T. SMITH 3,130,687

HOPPER DISCHARGE onus: CLOSURE ASSEMBLY I s Sheets-Sheet 5 \IIIIIIIIIIIIJ llllllll IL-L LI II II II F I I I II I IL. IFII l I I l I II I II l I l l I II II I I II .I I I I I l April 28, 1964 Filed Feb. 2, 1956-II r I I II I l l l I I l I I I I l I I I I III United States Patent3,136,687 HOPPER DISCHARGE OUTLET CLQSURE ASSEMBLY James T. Smith,Chicago, Ill., assignor to Jay R. Sheesley, Winnetka, Ill. Filed Feb. 2,1956, Ser. No. 563,083 4 Claims. (Cl. 105-282) This invention relates toimprovements in hopper discharge for a covered hopper car, the termhopper discharge referring to the gate or door construction, and whichconstruction could otherwise be expressed as a hopper discharging unit.

A covered hopper car is a railway car intended to accommodate granularand powdered ladings. Therefore, a hopper discharge is necessary whichprovides a seal which is effective to prevent entry of moisture into thehopper through the discharge. In certain types of ladings, such ascement, it is obvious that the lading must be kept completely dry.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a simplifiedconstruction, comprising three main elements, the hopper chute, the doorplate and a door supporting frame, in which the latter comprises awelded structure made up principally from standard shapes, such aschannels. The hopper chute and door plate are castings, and according tomy invention, the construction has been simplified in such a manner thatthey both rest on the supporting frame, the upper surface of certain ofthe frame elements providing the Ways upon which the door plate slides.

Another object of my invention is to provide a hopper discharge which ischaracterized by the use of relatively few parts and requires a minimumnumber of machined surfaces.

A further object is to provide a hopper discharge construction whichprovides an effective seal without the use of vertically movable sealingelements or surfaces.

Still another object is to provide a hopper discharge of suchconstruction that a double seal is provided on all four sides of thedoor plate.

A further object is to provide, in a hopper discharge, a rack and pinionarrangement which is so located as to minimize binding or cocking of thedoor plate.

Still another object of my invention is to provide an improved lock andseal for a hopper discharge.

Other objects, features and advantages will become apparent as thedescription proceeds.

With reference now to the drawings in which like reference numeralsdesignate like parts:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of my invention;

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view taken substantially along line 2-2 ofFIG. 1; but in which certain parts have been broken away for purposes ofclarity;

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the lock and seal;

FIG. 4 is a transverse section, looking forwardly, taken along line 4-4of FIG. 7;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal section, looking inwardly taken along line 5-5of FIG. 7;

FIG. 6 is a section taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 4 showing the rack andpinion;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the rear portion of the device;

FIG. 8 is a vertical section taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a plan View of the door plate;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged vertical section thereof taken along line 10-10of FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the supporting frame disassociated from theother parts.

With reference now to FIGS. 1-7, the hopper discharge comprises threemain elements, the hopper chute 3,130,687 Patented Apr. 28, 1964 12, asupporting frame 13, and a door plate 14. The hopper chute and the doorplate are each integral members, preferably in the form of castings.

The frame, as shown in FIG. 11, comprises a rectangular structure formedof longitudinal members 15 and 16, and back and front cross membersacross channels 17 and 18, all of which may be standard shapes, such aschannels. The frame also includes an interniediately located cross bar19 which is of a special shape, as shown in FIG. 5, so that the diagonalsurface presented thereby forms, roughly speaking, a continuation of thecorresponding surface of the hopper chute 12. Due to its special shape,the cross bar 19 is preferably in the form of a casting. The elements 15to 19 are suitably welded to each other to provide a rigid frameconstruction.

The hopper chute 12 is in the form of a rectangular frame, whichreceives the lower end of the hopper 26. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 7,neither the chute 12 nor the hopper 26 are symmetrical with respect to alongitudinal axis. This is for the reason that two hopper discharges areprovided, one on each side of the center sill of the railroad car.Consequently, the inner side of each hopper discharge, which is the leftside as viewed in FIGS. 4 and 7, is provided with a substantiallyvertical wall rather than the sloping wall which is provided at theopposite side. Thus, any hopper discharge will be a right hand or lefthand discharge, the embodiment shown being a right hand discharge.

The hopper chute is secured to the frame 13, the hopper chute havingdepending flanges 20 at its inner, outer, and rear sides. These flangesare welded to the upper surfaces of the members 15, 16 and 17, as shownin FIGS. 4 and 5. These upper surfaces, interiorly of the flanges 20,provide ways 22, or shoulders on which the door plate 14 rests forsliding movement.

The hopper chute 12 is also provided with lips 21 around all four sideswhich overlie and cooperate with the upper surface of the door plate 14to provide a seal, referred to herein as the inner seal 24. A slightclearance between the parts 21 and 14 is, of course, necessary to permitfree sliding movement of the door plate upon its ways, the clearancebeing small enough so as not to affect appreciably the effectiveness ofthe seal.

The door plate 14 is provided with flanges 23 around three of its sides,as shown in FIGS. 4, 7 and 9, which rest on the ways 22. The cooperationof elements 22 and 23 forms a seal referred to herein as the outer seal25. When the door is in its closed position, it will be seen that theinner and outer seals 24 and 25 are separated from each other by a spaceor chamber 27.

The double seal thus provided around three of the sides has been foundto be effective in preventing such comingling of lading with foreignmatter, such as moisture and dust, as would interfere with smoothsliding movement of the door plate 14 upon its ways 22. Moreparticularly, the outer seal 25 keeps moisture and foreign matter out ofthe chamber 27 and the inner seal 24 keeps the lading out of the chamber27. Thus, in the case of cement, for instance, there will be noopportunity for the lading to collect on the ways 22 and set up at thatpoint.

A double seal is also provided for the fourth or front side of thehopper chute 12. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, the front side of the hopperchute is provided with a forwardly extendinghorizontal flange 30, andwith forwardly extending vertical flanges 31 and 32. The front edge ofthedoor plate, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 is provided with sealing ribs33 and 34, both of which cooperate with the horizontal flange 30 toprovide an outer seal 35, as shown in FIG. 5. In other words, theflanges 30, 31 and 32 provide a recess or opening 36, as shown in FIG.2, which receives the sealing ribs 33 and 34, the

Q1) door plate 14 being broken away in FIG. 5 to better show the natureof the recess 36.

The use of separate sealing ribs 33 and 34 which are separated by achannel 37 is believed to contribute material to the sealing effect. Anyforeign matter which goes beyond the first sealing rib 34 will becomeentrapped in the channel 37. As observed in FIG. the Width of thesealing rib 34 is slightly less than the width of the sealing rib 33 sothat any water collecting in the channel 37 may drain out.

It will also be observed in FIGS. 5 and 10 that the door plate 14 isprovided with a diagonally disposed portion 38, rearwardly of thesealing rib 33, which cooperates with the similarly inclined surface ofthe hopper chute 12 to provide a relatively narrow passageway which alsoprovides a sealing effect.

Means are provided for slidably moving the door plate 14 on its ways 22in such a manner as to avoid binding and cocking.

The door plate is provided with journals 4% preferably at its front end,which accommodate a horizontally disposed transversely extending shaft41, having secured thereto two pinions 42. The shaft is also providedwith a handle socket 43 by means of which rotation may be imparted tothe shaft 41. The pinions 42 cooperate with two horizontally disposedlongitudinally extending open tooth racks 44, preferably made of caststeel, the racks 44 having integral lugs 45 by means of which they canbe welded to the channels and 16, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 4 and11. The racks 44 are located at the front end of the channels 15 and 16.Thus, they are laterally displaced from the hopper chute 12 with theresult that the rack teeth will not be clogged by the lading, incidentto discharge. Furthermore, the fact that the racks are open tooth rackseliminates the possibility of any accumulation of any dust or dirt whichwould tend to clog the teeth. Thus, there will be no such accumulationas would tend to interfere with the free sliding motion of the door. Inthis connection also, the rack 44 and the pinions 42 may be made tofairly large tooth clearances to provide easy operation.

Tooth clearance is a source of cocking, but by locating the toothedelements 42-44 beyond the confines of the door plate, rather than withinthe same, I have found that the extent of cocking can be cut down verysubstantially.

As shown in FIG. 7, the left pinion 42 is secured to the shaft 41 by apin 46, whereas the right pinion 42 and the handle socket 43 are securedto the shaft by welds. Thus, both pinions are positively driven with theresult that cocking is avoided.

Means are provided to lock the door plate 14 in its closed position. Asshown in FIGS. 1-3 and ll, two pivots 50 are carried by brackets 50awhich, in turn, are suitably welded to channel 16, which is the outerlongitudinal frame member in the right hand hopper shown. A hingedblocking member 51 is mounted on the pivots so that it may be swung upover the rack, as shown in FIG. 3, into a position in which it engages alug 52 (not shown in FIG. 3) which projects from the journal 40. Thus,forward movement of the door plate 14 is blocked.

The outer end of the blocking member 51 is provided with a pair ofopenings 53 which register with the openings 54 between the teeth of theopen toothed rack 44. A length of sealing wire or sealing strap 55 maybe looped through openings 53 and 54 and sealed by a lead collar 56 inthe usual manner to indicate that the door has not been unblocked andlading removed.

In most instances, it is necessary to provide the locking device only onthe outer one of the two channels 15 and 16, this being the moreaccessible of the two. However, the lugs 52 are cast into the door plate14 in both places, so as to adopt the door plate for use with either aright hand or left hand hopper discharge. As

it shown in FIGS. 5 and 11, however, the pivots 50 and the hingedblocking mem er 51 are also applied to the channel 15.

To summarize the operation, which has been described in detail inconnection with the description of the various parts and sub-assemblies,when the door plate 14 is in its closed position, as shown in thefigures, a double seal, comprising a continuous inner seal 24 surroundsall four sides of the door plate. A continuous outer seal 25 surroundsthree of the sides, and the fourth or front side, is provided with anouter seal 35. Thus, all four sides of the door plate are provided witha double seal.

To open the hopper discharge the sealing wire 55 is first cut, and theblocking member 51 is swung around to clear the lug 52, thereby blockingthe door plate 14. Then a suitable handle or bar is inserted into thehandle socket 4-3 and rotated. This causes the door to move forwardly,the flanges 23 sliding on the ways 22 until the door plate 14 iscompletely clear of the hopper chute 12.

A groove 57 is formed in the cross member w, and similarly shaped clips56 are welded to the flanges of the channels 15 and 16 in order toprovide means to which a discharge conduit may be removably secured.

In order to distinguish between the various seals, the outer seal 25 maybe referred to as a weight actuated seal since the parts are urged intosealing engagement by the weight of the lading. The inner seal 24, andthe outer seal 35 may be referred to as clearance type seals since thesealing action depends not upon any positive pressure engagement of theparts, but rather on the dimensions of the clearance or passagewaybetween the parts, which is desirably maintained as small as possible,say, of the order of 64 Of an inch.

The present invention provides a hopper discharge of greatly simplifiedconstruction since there are only three principal elements, the hopperchute 12, the supporting frame 13 and the door plate 14, with the resultthat the entire structure may be assembled with ease and at low cost.Furthermore, the supporting frame 14 is made up, for the most part, ofstandard shapes, such as channels, as contrasted with various prior artdevices which, due to irregularity of shape, call either for the use ofcastings or of relatively expensive fabricated parts. The only surfaceswhich require machining are certain of the cooperating surfaces of thevarious seals 24, 25, and 35. As a result, the present invention callsfor a minimum number of machined surfaces and movable parts, whichfeature contributes to ease of manufacture and long service life underthe extremely severe operating conditions usually encountered.

Another feature of the present invention is that the frame 14 providescontinuous ways 22 which support the door in either open or closedposition, with the result that no portion of the door weight is taken upby the rack and pinion. Furthermore, the ways 22 comprise the uppersurfaces of standard rolled shapes, such as channels, and hence requireno machining.

Additionally, it can be pointed out that a simplified type ofconstruction is obtained by having the pinions carried by the door plate14 and the rack by the frame 13, which is the opposite of the usual typeof construction. Nevertheless, the parts are so arranged that thedirection of shaft rotation required to open or close the door plate isthe same as that of the usual type of construction. As previouslypointed out, the present arrangement materially reduces cocking andbinding due to the location of the toothed elements 42 and 44.

Although only a preferred embodiment of my invention has been shown anddescribed herein, it will be understood that various modifications andchanges may be made in the construction shown without departing from thespirit of my invention as pointed out in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A hopper door assembly comprising a hopper chute providing adischarge opening, a door supporting frame and a door plate slidablymounted between said hopper chute and said frame, said frame includingtwo longitudinally disposed members, the upper surfaces of which formways upon which said door plate is slidably mounted, and including arear cross member at one end upon which the rear edge of said door platerests when said door plate is in closed position, the cooperation ofsaid ways and the upper surface of said rear cross member with the edgesof said door plate providing a weight actuated seal between said doorand said supporting frame along three of the four sides of said doorplate, said hopper chute being provided with a lip portion on all foursides thereof which extends into proximity with the upper surface ofsaid door plate to provide a clearance type seal between said hopperchute and said door plate around all four sides of said door plates, andadditional sealing means of the clearance type between said chute andsaid door plate and located forwardly of the corresponding lip portion,whereby a double seal is provided on all four sides of said door plate.

2. A hopper door assembly comprising a hopper chute defining a dischargeopening, a frame secured to said hopper chute, a door plate slidablymounted on said frame beneath said discharge opening, said door plate,said frame, and said hopper chute cooperating to provide an annularchamber surrounding the four sides of said discharge opening, said frameand said door plate having portions cooperating with each other toprovide a weight actuated outer seal around three sides of saiddischarge opening, and said hopper chute and said door plate cooperatingto provide an inner clearance type seal around the four sides of saidopening, and means providing a clearance type outer seal between anextended portion of said door plate and a portion of said frame alongthe fourth side of said opening, said last-mentioned outer sealproviding means being of over-all dimensions sufiicient to permitsliding movement of said door plate therethrough, whereby said outerseals seal said annular chamber from the exterior of the hopperdischarge structure, and whereby said inner seal seals said chamber fromthe interior of said hopper chute.

3. A hopper door assembly comprising a hopper chute defining a dischargeopening, a frame structure surrounding said hopper chute and extendingdownward beneath said discharge opening, a door plate slidably mountedon said frame structure beneath said discharge opening, said hopperchute and said frame structure cooperating with each other to provide anannular recess surrounding said discharge opening, said door plate, whenin closed position, cooperating with said annular recess to form acompletely enclosed annular chamber, means providing an outer sealseparating said annular chamber from the exterior of said hopperdischarge structure, and means providing an inner seal separating saidannular chamber from the interior of said hopper chute, said outer sealcomprising a Weight actuated seal along three sides of said annularchamber and a plurality of clearance type seals along the fourth side,and said inner seal comprising a clearance type seal along all foursides of said annular chamber.

4. A hopper discharge comprising a hopper chute providing a dischargeopening, a door supporting frame therefor, a door plate slidably mountedon said frame and beneath said hopper chute and cooperating with saidhopper chute to form a seal, an open tooth rack on said supportingframe, a shaft rotatably mounted on said door plate, a pinion secured tosaid shaft above said rack and meshing therewith whereby rotation ofsaid shaft will cause operation of said door plate, and a blockingmember hingedly mounted on said frame and movable between a blockingposition in which it rests on said rack to block movement of said doorout of closed position and an unblocking position, said blocking memberincluding a plate portion having an opening therein which registers withone of the openings between the teeth of said open tooth rack so that asealing strap can be passed through said aligned openings.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS265,804 Herberg et a1 Oct. 10, 1881 310,930 Benson Jan. 20, 18851,122,918 Hart et al. Dec. 29, 1914 1,403,166 Johnson Jan. 10, 19221,608,303 Crumb Nov. 23, 1926 1,701,971 Chesson Feb. 12, 1929 2,043,615Hankins June 9, 1936 2,043,616 Hankins June 9, 1936 2,051,985Cartzdafner Aug. 25, 1936 2,145,173 Hankins Ian. 24, 1939 2,179,887Giatz Nov. 14, 1939 2,250,524 Dietrichson July 29, 1941 2,386,702McBride Oct. 9, 1945 2,670,108 Skogstad et a1. Feb. 23, 1954 2,750,074Dorey June 12, 1956 2,791,973 Dorey May 14, 1957 2,859,707 Dorey Nov.11, 1958

1. A HOPPER DOOR ASSEMBLY COMPRISING A HOPPER CHUTE PROVIDING ADISCHARGE OPENING, A DOOR SUPPORTING FRAME AND A DOOR PLATE SLIDABLYMOUNTED BETWEEN SAID HOPPER CHUTE AND SAID FRAME, SAID FRAME INCLUDINGTWO LONGITUDINALLY DISPOSED MEMBERS, THE UPPER SURFACES OF WHICH FORMWAYS UPON WHICH SAID DOOR PLATE IS SLIDABLY MOUNTED, AND INCLUDING AREAR CROSS MEMBER AT ONE END UPON WHICH THE REAR EDGE OF SAID DOOR PLATERESTS WHEN SAID DOOR PLATE IS IN CLOSED POSITION, THE COOPERATION OFSAID WAYS AND THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID REAR CROSS MEMBER WITH THE EDGESOF SAID DOOR PLATE PROVIDING A WEIGHT ACTUATED SEAL BETWEEN SAID DOORAND SAID SUPPORTING FRAME ALONG THREE OF THE FOUR SIDES OF SAID DOORPLATE, SAID HOPPER CHUTE BEING PROVIDED WITH A LIP PORTION ON ALL FOURSIDES THEREOF WHICH EXTENDS INTO PROXIMITY WITH THE UPPER SURFACE OFSAID DOOR PLATE TO PROVIDE A CLEARANCE TYPE SEAL BETWEEN SAID HOPPERCHUTE AND SAID DOOR PLATE AROUND ALL FOUR SIDES OF SAID DOOR PLATES, ANDADDITIONAL SEALING MEANS OF THE CLEARANCE TYPE BETWEEN SAID CHUTE ANDSAID DOOR PLATE AND LOCATED FORWARDLY OF THE CORRESPONDING LIP PORTION,WHEREBY A DOUBLE SEAL IS PROVIDED ON ALL FOUR SIDES OF SAID DOOR PLATE.